Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBEis a New Zealand-born English screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, and Love Actually, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. He is also the co-founder of the British charity Comic Relief along with Lenny Henry...
NationalityNew Zealander
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth8 November 1956
CityWellington, New Zealand
Again, we turn down most books that have been self-published unless they have a special track record. We have taken a small number on, however, and sold them to major publishers for a nice sum. But that is an exception to the rule.
I have to declare in all candor that no one interested in being published in our time can afford to be so naive as to believe that a book will make it merely because it's good.
Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks.
I have no problem selling books to media franchises and we do it all the time. The author must understand that he/she is a writer for hire and has no control over copyright or over editorial changes made to the text.
I do send out information about my books. Very few people buy the books that way, but I always feel that if they want to know more about the process, they can get the information from my books.
I tend to turn down books originally published as e-books. As for selling books directly to e-book publishers, I would do so only if all traditional publishers had turned them down.
I want to be open about it because I think I've got to the point where I have no choice,
We've been very hard put to find new initiates among African Americans. It has really been very difficult. It's like finding a needle in a haystack for us.
Really, it's a white drug at this point. Those are the only real large category of new users that we can find.
My patients have been very supportive, ... Because I had been dressing quite androgynously for some time, 99.9 per cent of them didn't even comment. One of them asked me if I'd had a haircut.
We now open our mail with gloves and mask, though I can't imagine why anyone would target a literary agency!
We are forced by the major publishers to include electronic rights in the contracts we make with publishers for new books. And there's very little we can do about that.
The idea is to get people in with the romance, ... so I kept one foot in the old camp.
No one likes it, apart from blind people, and I'm sure even they can sense it's profound ugliness as it passes by.